Even when you account for the massive underestimates & outright lies by the US Pentagon about the number of troops it has deployed in other countries & even when you take into consideration the unknown numbers of Russian, Iranian, US-coalition, Israeli, Hezbollah forces & mercenaries added to ISIS irregulars in Syria, nearly a million Indian soldiers in Kashmir (with a population of 12.5 million) shows the immense scale of the occupation which makes it the most militarized region in the world. Especially when you know that there are nearly as many Indian soldiers in Kashmir as there are soldiers in either the US or Russian army.
Catholic media is reporting that Burmese Cardinal Charles Maung Bo accompanied by the cardinal from the Philippines visited Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh. Of course they’re reporting the visit as a mission of apostolic mercy when Cardinal Maung Bo is compromised with genocide up to his eyeballs. He has an affable relationship with Suu Kyi & with General Min Aung Hlaing, the architect of the Rohingya genocide. At the height of the genocide in 2017, he appeared at a public ecumenical prayer fest called by Suu Kyi & the generals & never uttered a word of protest against the genocide. He later asked Pope Francis not to use the proper name Rohingya when he shamefully paid a state visit to Suu Kyi & the generals in November 2017, also at the height of the genocide. There are photos of the Catholic clergy in Burma scraping & bowing to Suu Kyi like feudal servants. If Cardinal Maung Bo is visiting Rohingya refugees, whose proper name he refuses to say, it is as an emissary of Suu Kyi & the generals, not as an emissary of Jesus.
What happened to the church of saints & martyrs that all Catholics are raised to respect as their history? If Cardinal Maung Bo is afraid to speak out against genocide in Burma, he should hop a plane to Rome & speak out against the slaughter of Rohingya from the balcony of St. Peters. That is the commitment to humanity required of spiritual leaders.
This photo is Cardinal Maung Bo having an affable meeting with the military architect of the Rohingya genocide, General Min Aung Hlaing on August 21st, 2017. At the same time, five other Burmese Catholic bishops were meeting with military officials to discuss “inclusiveness & cooperation for the political affairs & peace making process,” as the General’s office reported it.
(Photo of the cardinal & the general from General Min Aung Hlaing’s office)
According to Palestinian trade unions, the poverty rate in Gaza is now 80-percent with a 55-percent unemployment rate for a population of 1.8 million. Staggering, catastrophic, genocidal, & entirely due to Israel’s blockade that has turned Gaza into what is called an ‘outdoor prison.’
Build BDS. Rally for a free Palestine.
Yesterday, 280 companies (28,000 troops) of Indian soldiers were deployed to Kashmir on top of the 10,000 deployed last February, the 40,000 for the Hindu pilgrimage last month, & the 10,000 just days ago ” to strengthen counterinsurgency operations & law & order duties.” The Indian government is offering no explanation for the deployments but according to the Hindustan Times, the troops are being deployed “in vulnerable spots” of Srinagar & the rest of Kashmir. All major entry & exit points have been taken over by the Central Armed Paramilitary Forces, a division of the Indian military with several different kinds of soldiers who function as police, border patrol, counterinsurgency, surveillance, & occupation.
Kashmiris are uncertain what the additional deployments mean since there have been increased hunt to kill operations for the past few years where under the guise of hunting down armed militants, civilian protesters are shot at & assaulted, homes are invaded, vandalized, & razed, livestock are killed. There is already the highest ratio of soldiers to civilians in any region in the world
These excessive deployments are a provocation & a threat to Kashmiris. It’s reported that many have begun panic buying probably in expectations of the curfews India imposes for months at a time & in fear of the ubiquitous troops. Children are put in even more danger & certainly sustain more emotional trauma.
Stand with Kashmiris by educating others about their struggle against colonialism & occupation, by organizing forums & panels about their struggle, & by organizing public rallies demanding the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all Indian troops from Kashmir.
(Photo of Indian troops in Kashmir by Waseem Andrabi/Hindustan Times file)
The corrupted US antiwar movement is holding forums on the persecution of Putin & Russia whilst Idlib burns. It isn’t just silent on Syria but has not organized a single action against US wars in Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Libya. That explains why it is now down to a handful of Stalinist hacks wringing their gnarled hands over the hurt feelings of Putin & the maligning of Assad. If you take a look at how the USSR operated under their tenure, you understand how they made the antiwar movement a parody & a mockery of antiwar principles.
Surely these little kids in Idlib will agree with the moribund antiwar movement that their trauma is “worth it”, as Madeleine Albright would put it, to prevent a “US regime-change operation” & win self-determination for the Assad dictatorship.
(Photo from Anadolu Agency)
From the mouthes of the children being bombed with Syrian & Russian barrel & incendiary bombs.
(Tweeted by Bonnie Kipperman)
“War isn’t in my past. It’s in my everyday. Day & nights. The nightmares aren’t always same but the place is the same: Douma. The emotions I felt during the nightmares are the same I lived already: fear, helplessness, & sadness. War is devastating. And I am not a child.”
–Syrian activist Ahmad@Ahmad1618A on Twitter
If you can’t figure out Tulsi Gabbard’s politics when she spells out her Zionism, Islamophobia, Assadism, militarism, & Hindutva nationalism over & over again on Twitter & has a web site with her voting record, perhaps political thinking is not up your alley & fairy tales are.
CNN has published a clear explanation for US, Jordanian, & Syrian joint responsibility for the humanitarian crisis facing 25,000 displaced Syrians in the Rukban refugee camp near the Jordanian border. The camp is in a US-protected zone only ten miles from a US military base, Jordan refuses to allow cross border deliveries, & Syria refuses to allow aid delivery in order to force residents to evacuate to regime-controlled areas where they will likely be arrested.
One of the major problems in building a Syrian Arab Spring solidarity movement was the misrepresentation of the role played by US-coalition forces in Syria. Assadists denounced a “US regime-change operation” while many leading anti-Assadists called for a humanitarian US intervention to defend the Syrian Arab Spring. There have recently been a few articles by anti-Assad supporters of the Syrian Arab Spring backing off their nonsense about a US humanitarian bombing campaign & giving a rational analysis of the role of the US-coalition in Syria. It was a major, almost unforgivable blunder to campaign for US military intervention as a means to save a revolution against dictatorship. In the case of Syria, it is proving fatal because it undermined the possibility of building a solidarity movement. Proponents of US humanitarian bombing claimed Syrians were demanding it so who were we to oppose it. Who are we? We are those who can connect the dots between the US wars in Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq, Somalia, Libya, Syria, the US bankrolling of Israeli occupation & then make the connections with all the other US wars of the past many decades.
Demand the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all Russian, Iranian, US-coalition, Israeli, & Hezbollah forces & mercenaries out of Syria.
CNN article: https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/01/middleeast/syria-rukban-us-intl/index.html?
(Photo from Rukban refugee camp by Khalil Mazraawi/AFP/Getty Images, March 2019)